On October 27, 2021, the Supreme Court, as part of the panel of judges of the Second Judicial Chamber of the Civil Court of Cassation in case No. 279/5407/20 , satisfied the cassation appeal of the interested person, since the appellate court came to an unfounded conclusion that the delivery of a court decision by e-mail to a person's personal e-mail is delivery of such a decision.
The person applied for adoption by one of the spouses of the child of the other spouse.
The application was granted by the decision of the city district court.
The appellate court refused to open an appellate proceeding based on an interested person's appeal against the decision of the city-district court, finding the reasons for missing the deadline for an appeal to be invalid.
After considering the cassation appeal of the interested person against this decision, the Supreme Court stated that the interested person submitted an application through the "Electronic Court" for consideration of the case in her absence, in which she noted that she had received a copy of the statement of claim, and did not object to the satisfaction of the claim. She also asked to send an electronic copy of the decision made in this case to her mailbox, and to send the full court decision to her postal address.
After the decision in the case was made, the local court sent the adoption decision to the recipient's e-mail address, and the envelope with a copy of the decision was returned to the court marked "after the expiration of the storage period."
According to paragraphs 15.14 pp. 15 p. 1 ch. XII "Transitional Provisions" of the Civil Code of Ukraine until the day of the start of operation of the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System, the court delivers court decisions in paper form.
In accordance with Part 5 of Art. 272 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine to the participants of the case who were not present at the court session, or if the court decision was made outside the court session or without notice (summons) of the participants of the case, a copy of the court decision is sent within two days from the day of its drafting in full in electronic form in the manner established by law, if the person has an official e-mail address, or by registered mail with delivery notice, if there is no such address.
According to clauses 1, 2 and 6 of ch. 2 of the temporary regulation of the sending of electronic documents by the court to the participants of the court process, criminal proceedings, approved by the order of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine dated November 7, 2016 No. 227, documents may be sent to the user by the court in electronic form only after registration in the "Electronic Court" system.
After preparing and signing the procedural document, in parallel with the procedure defined by the procedural legislation, the court sends electronic copies of the procedural document sealed with the electronic digital signature of the judge (reporting judge, presiding judge) by e-mail to the mailbox of the participant in the judicial process, criminal proceedings, if such a participant registered in the System as a user (clause 1, section 4 of the Temporary Regulations).
Under such circumstances, the court of first instance was obliged to send court decisions in paper form by registered letter or e-mail to the official e-mail address registered in the System, which was not done. There is no evidence of delivery of the contested decision to the interested person in the case file.
Thus, the appellate court came to an unfounded conclusion that the delivery of a court decision by e-mail to the personal e-mail of an interested person is the delivery of such a decision.
Therefore, the Supreme Court annulled the decision of the appeals court and sent the case to the court of appeals to decide on the opening of appeal proceedings.